Volume of the Google, Ali, tens of billions of Magic Leap admit false demonstration video is special effects

via:博客园 time:2016/12/9 14:00:39 readed:914

Have to say that mysterious augmented reality (mixed reality) Startup Magic Leap is the darling of AR / VR industry, but including Google, Alibaba, A16Z, KPCB, JP Morgan Chase, etc. are first-class investors are trying to give it Throwing money,For fear of lagging behind others step. So far we can only see some of its promotional video, even a product of the shadow have not seen, but the company has to 4.5 billion US dollars valuation to get 1.4 billion financing. But the "The Information" of a recent reportPointed out, Magic Leap those hits a huge video just to attract users and engineering personnel means, its research and development progress is lagging far behind, in product miniaturization encountered problems, the degree of completion is not as good as Microsoft's HoloLens.

The public is attracted to Magic Leap because it looks like a very compelling promotional video. These include "This is another day of work", The whale in the stadium in the amazing leap and so on. For example, in a video depicting the work scene, an employee opens the e-mail with a first person in a mixed-reality scene, and then seems to be able to manipulate the real-world scene, and finally with the evil robot invading the office. But the results show that the video is completely "Lord of the Rings" special effects team Weta Workshop effects processing, the video inside the company claimed that their people all day playing video games does not exist, and now just started the work of research and development. But there are reports that the company has taken the video to attract engineers to the Silicon Valley is far from the south of Florida, Magic Leap headquarters.

"The Information" reported that Magic Leap of these videos are misleading the public suspected. After all, Magic Leap never released any product, and never explained the core of the product as "light field" patented technology is how it happened. The gossip says that Magic Leap is doing something with holograms or lasers, or that it has invented a sort of reality twisting machine that is as tall as a building and never will ever be commercially viable. The lack of hard information has led to further add to the grapevine message.

In a rareInterview, Founder Abovitz said Magic Leap has spent $ 1 billion to perfect a prototype and has started installing a production line in Florida and will introduce a consumer version of the technology later - & mdash; the most optimistic forecast is Within 18 months. Although Abovitz has repeatedly claimed that the final product will be completed, but the Magic Leap in the AR equipment from the helmet size to do the size of ordinary glasses in the size of the work really in trouble.

Perhaps the company is more likely to see this hidden. In September, there have been several Silicon Valley investorsShow, They have contacted a number of leave from the Magic Leap entrepreneurial team.

And a person familiar with the matter said Magic Leap Silicon Valley office "morale is low, people almost emptied". Of course, from the cause of the analysis, which is more of a management reason, which may not be the most serious, because it shows Magic Leap is still technically promising.

A rare product demonstration from The Information shows that Magic Leap's current device is a heavy-duty helmet-style device that requires multiple cables to be interconnected with a desktop computer. The Magic Leap device from the demo is said to have some similar elements to Microsoft's Hololens, but the image will be more blurry and jerky in some cases. Microsoft's Hololens has launched a developer's kit, priced at $ 3,000, and has been completely independent of the computer to wear.

Magic Leap's fiber scanning technology seems to be the key. This technique allows the laser to move rapidly within the fiber and draw the image with light. The company's fiber-optic scanning technology as their own breakthrough technology that can be used to prototype the extremely expensive hardware equipment used to significantly reduce the cost of internal down - m " ;

The question now is, Magic Leap still can not get the fiber scan display. The company then downgraded the technology to a long-term research project. Abovitz said in an interview: "In the project you have to make a trade-off." However, the company's latest prototype is still the size of the standard glasses. The prototype of the internal code-named PEQ, but Magic Leap refused to demonstrate to the "The Information" to see. In terms of functionality, Abovitz said PEQ is slightly lower than the previous prototype, but refused to disclose whether the technology used is now similar to Hololens.

It seems Magic Leap is still keeping its mystery, but as the various forces in the next year, leaving the Magic Leap to prove their time is running out.